Country's ARVs stock can only last for six months

Kenya’s Antiretroviral (ARVs) stock can last for six months only following the move by USAID to freeze funding in the health sector according to the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC).

The move has caused anxiety among hundreds of patients living with HIV/AIDS, leading to a rush to restock their ARV supplies, raising fears of a shortage of the drugs in the coming days.

About 41,000 employees, mainly health workers, were affected by the recent freeze on US foreign aid with counties saying that they could not integrate them.

This emerged during a multi-sectorial consultative meeting with County stakeholders on the sustainability response to HIV and Syndemic diseases held in Lake Naivasha Resort.

According to Khatru Ali, a board member of the Council, there is an urgent need to address the current stock as the effects of the funding freeze start being felt.

Khatru, who represents the Council of Governors (COG) in NSDCC, noted that due to the crisis, the number of HIV patients seeking medication to stock was on the rise.

“We have been told that the supplies that we have will last us for around six months and the queue in the hospitals to access those drugs is long because people want to keep stock,” she said.

.

Keep Reading

• How USAID shutdown will affect Kenya's medical research

She admitted that the budget cut had impacted negatively on health as most programs that are supported by the US government were HIV services, TB, and Malaria.

Speaking during the workshop, Khatru was however optimistic that the current challenges could be addressed through collaboration between the national government, donors, and counties.

Khatru noted that HIV, TB, and Malaria data were under the hands of USAID, noting that failure to get this would have major impacts on the health sector.

“We are in a mess as all our data are with the US government and within 90 days if we are unable to download some of our data, the USAID system will shut down,” she said.

The Council CEO Dr Ruth Masha, however, downplayed the  shortage of ARVs noting that the country had ample stock and was working with other development partners.

Addressing the press on the sidelines of the meeting, she called on HIV-AIDS patients to continue taking drugs, noting that they did not anticipate a shortage.

“US government contribution was large but we are going to look at the other funding streams and see how we can reorganize ourselves,” she said

Masha noted the US programme was supporting over 41,500 workers, adding that where the services have been affected, the county governments had to make sure that they had put mitigation measures in place.

The CEC for Health in Kirinyaga County George Karoki said that the country should be grateful for the support rendered to the health sector by the US government for years.

“Due to the funding cut, challenges will come our way many times but as leaders, we must look for ways and methods of how we get solutions,” he said.